We Have a New Member of Our Family!

No, my lovely wife has not given birth to son #3 yet. So while the birth of son #3 will also be the 5th member of our regullar human-type family, I am talking about the 5th member of our bike family.

Behold, the Fuji Roubaix RC:


This is Bridget's new road bike. It is the replacement for the Cannondale CAAD 9 bike that we sold after we found out she was pregnant. That bike was a mish-mash of parts, everything from 105 shifters to Ultegra and dura ace derailleurs. This bike is straight 10 speed Ultegra all the way around. This bike also has a carbon seatstay (not sure how big a deal this really is, but whatever).

This particular bike was not planned for, just like many new additions to many families. This bike came to us second-hand. Some poor sap bought this bike from the Beaverton Performance Bike shop on close out last year. It was just about the last one that they had and he picked it up for $1200. The bike retails for $2000 and Performance regularly sold it for around $1500 until the 2007 models came in, at which point they started blowing them out at the lower price. Today he brought the bike in and to return the bike for something else. You might think this is odd--well it is. Performance has a liberal return policy though so, the manager let him return it and sold him a $3200 bike instead. On the whole deal, the shop probably will break even so don't feel too bad.

His problems with the bike were legitimate. The other Performance store sold him a bike that was too small. It is a 54cm with an effective top tube of 55cm. The dude is 6 feet tall, maybe a bit more. Then the steerer tube of the fork was defective and had to be sent back to Fuji. This was about a month ago and the fork is still not back to us yet. In the meantime, we put on a Forte fork which is not the same quality nor the same measurements as the original fork. The Forte fork has 40mm of rake and the original fork has 45. As a result the bike handles a little funny, plus the wheel hit his shoes. Anyway, he was sick of waiting for the new fork from Fuji, and he realized that the bike was too small. And after talking to Joel, my manager, about it off and on over the past few days, he worked the deal and dropped off the above pictured bike today in exchange for the 2008 Fuji Team RC (the main difference being that the Team RC is full carbon instead of a aluminum and carbon like the Roubaix RC).

I told Joel that I was interested in it for Bridget. He told me to make an offer. I did, $550. He bumped me to $599 for what you see in the picture. Done deal. The warranty fork replacement is supposed to be delivered this next week, so the bike will be back to spec.

The bike probably has 500 to 1000 miles on it. The bike is original except for the saddle--which sucks and will be replaced by Bridget's Terry Butterfly saddle. The tires have some wear on them, but not too bad. Plus, I could part out the bike right now and make about 300 bucks, so I figure it is a good deal.

The main thing is that I got Bridget a good bike for about $1,000 less than we sold the Cannondale for, and less than what we had planned on spending. It was actually causing her some stress that we were going to have to spend money on a bike when we need to be saving for different car with more room. So this bike is fits the bill prefectly. Overall, it is at least as good as the 'dale too. The major downgrade is the wheelset, but those are getting swapped out for some wheels that I have sitting in the garage that weigh about 280 grams less. The Cane Creek Strados wheelset, which weighs about 1800 grams, currently on the Fuji, will make an excellent spare wheelset for cross once I do the swap.

I am glad to found this bike. Bridget is happy too. She has acquired a taste for good stuff after her Cannondale and this fits the bill. The fact that it is used doesn't matter one bit to her, neither does the fact that it is a 2006 model. There is hardly any difference, if any, between the 2006 frame and the 2008 other than paint. At this point in time she would much rather have a used bike than spend more money for the same quality (even though it would be an employee deal, this bike as a 2008 model would cost me near $1,000 to E.P. through Fuji once shipping was figured in).

Anyway, so the bike is ours and here is the current Flynn bike line up (excluding our boys who have a couple of bikes and a trike too):

2008 Fuji Aloha CF2 TT/Road w/ Dura Ace
2007 Lapierre XLite Scandium cyclocross w/ SRAM Rival
2006 Curtlo S3/OX Platinum Cyclocross bike w/ XTR, Dura Ace, and Campagnolo Record
2008 Curtlo S3 OX Platinum Rigid Singlespeed Mountain Bike--21.7 lbs complete
2006 Fuji Roubaix RC w/ Ultegra

Not too shabby. The glaring thing missing from this line up is that we only have one MTB in it, and it is a singlespeed no less. Bridget is not too interested in mtb, but I would still like at least a geared mtb in the near future. How times have changed. Not long ago when I was in Utah, I had 3 mountain bikes and one cheap Trek 1200 road bike. Here in Portland, cyclocross has become a big thing and I ride more on the road than anything else. But, it's cool, they all roll and they all bring grins. We think the Fuji will do the same. Bridget plans on returning to the tri scene next year and this bike should work just fine, espcially for less than $600 for an 18.2 lbs bike as it sits right now. It will be sub 17 soon I assure you.